The ultrassonography as population method of renal tumor screening [A ultra-sonografia como método de rastreamento populacional de tumor renal]

Abstract

Background: To estimate the prevalence of kidney incidentalomas detected by ultrasound (US) at the University Hospital of Taubaté. Methods: Transversal and retrospective study of 1559 patients with abdominal US, with indications that did not lead to signals or symptoms related to renal tumors. This study was done during May of 1999 through November of 2002. We evaluated age, sex, indication of the examination, and characteristic of the injury. Results. One hundred and two cases of kidney incidentalomas were founnd with 6.20% of kidney cysts and 0.19% of malignant kidney tumors. Conclusion: The prevalence of incidentaloma with kidney malignancy at the University Hospital was of 0.19%. These results are lesser than that have been described in the literature. The use of US as a screening population method has to be better studied, because it is necessary too many examinations to achieve very low positive diagnosis for kidney cancers.